OPOSSUM CATCHING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3871, 22 May 1928, Page 54

OPOSSUM CATCHING.

At Owaka on Thursday, before Air 11. J. Dixon, S.AL, John Aleek was charged with on April 28, 1928, at Tautuku, taking and killing two opossums. There was a second charge that on April 30 the accused was found to be un'awfully in possesion of two opossums. The accused did not appear. Contable AV. T. Dark, ot Owaka, who prosecuted, stated that in consequence of a telephone communication from Air Lawson he had visited the latter’s place at Tautuku on April 29 (a Sunday), and found two dead opossums in a hole in a tree. He waited and watched, and in the early hours of Alonday morning, April 30, the accused came on the scene, and lifted the opossums. When challenged by the constable, the accused admitted that he had trapped the opossums and planted them. He made a statement to that effect. The constable took possesion of the two dead opossums, and also of three opossum traps which the man had in his possession. Constable Dark added that the accused was a notorious opossum poacher, and had been at it for years. He had been warned by Air Lawson not to trespass on his property, but had persisted. In 1926 the accused had been convicted and fined £5 for a similar offence in the same locality. The place was 22 miles from Owaka, and it was a difficult matter for one policeman to watch the poachers. It was, the constable considered, a case for a severe penalty.—The accused was convicted and fined £l5. with costs (10s), and the skins were ordered to be confiscated. The second charge was.withdrawn.